In a move that increases the profile -- and most likely the tourist draw -- to Pinnacles National Monument near Hollister, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed legislation upgrading the area to full national park status.

The new Pinnacles National Park becomes the 59th full national park in the United States, joining Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and the other most storied parts of America's national heritage.

The park, a 26,000-acre expanse featuring rocky spires, caves and California condors that was first set aside as a monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, also becomes the closest national park to the Bay Area now, supplanting Yosemite National Park.